Jordans

Jordans
Buckinghamshire
Jordans Village Store
Location
Grid reference:	SU975916
Location:	51°36’55"N, -0°35’33"W
Data
Population:	700
Post town:	Beaconsfield
Postcode:	HP9
Dialling code:	01494
Local Government
Council:	Buckinghamshire
Parliamentary constituency:	Chesham and Amersham

Jordans is a pretty, little village in Buckinghamshire, just west of Chalfont St Giles and east of Seer Green, at the edge of the Chiltern Hills.

The village is a centre for Quakerism. William Penn, founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, is buried here, and so is a popular place with American visitors. It also contains the Mayflower Barn, made from ship timbers sometimes claimed to be from the Mayflower.

The village is a place of 245 households. It has a nursery, primary school, youth hostel, village hall and community shop. Forty of the houses and cottages and 21 flats are owned by a non-profit society that manages the village and its amenities.

Name

Two of several suggested origins of the name Jordans appear in a book on the history of the village: "Little is known of Jordans Farm before the seventeenth century.... It has been suggested that the name comes from some connection with a manorial family of Jourdemain... but a more probable origin is in an early owner or occupant called Jordan."

Jordans Farm is known as Old Jordans today, and that building together with the Mayflower Barn date back to the 16th century.

Quakerism

Jordans Quaker meeting house

In the 17th century, the village became a centre for Quakerism. It has one of the oldest Friends meeting houses in the country, whose cemetery is the burial place of William Penn, founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, Isaac Pennington, as well as other notable Quakers. Close by is Old Jordans, originally a farmhouse, then a hostel until March 2006 when it was sold by the Quakers. Old Jordans was used during First World War as a training centre for the Friends' Ambulance Unit.

The most famous quaker of the age, William Penn (1644–1718), was a convert to Quakerism. King Charles II granted him land in North America to create a colony, Pennsylvania, of which he became the Lord Proprietor. He founded its capital, Philadelphia. Nevertheless, he died penniless and is buried in Jordans.

Meeting House

Jordans Friends Meeting House was built in 1688 shortly after the Declaration of Indulgence by King James II. The meeting room retains most of its original brick, including the bare brick floor, glass, panelling and benches. It suffered a serious fire on 10 March 2005, when the later extension was virtually destroyed and the roof of the original 17th-century meeting room severely damaged. The interior of the original meeting room escaped relatively unscathed, but suffered some water and smoke damage. The extension was rebuilt, modernised.

Mayflower Barn

Mayflower Barn

Within the grounds of Old Jordans is the Mayflower Barn on the edge of the Chiltern Hills, about a third of the way between London and Oxford.

The farm name seems to date back to the late Middle Ages. Its known history begins in 1618 when Thomas Russell bought it. Part of the present farmhouse was already there and Thomas Russell added to it in 1624, also building a substantial new barn with timbers from a ship. Despite suppositions, it cannot be shown that they came from the Mayflower, the ship that carried the Pilgrim Fathers from Plymouth to New England.

A piece of the timber was taken from the Mayflower Barn, placed in the Peace Arch built by Sam Hill and opened in September 1921. Besides the completion of the Pacific highway from the Canadian boundary to Mexico, the arch also marked a century of peace between the United States and the British Empire (which included Canada). A plaque shows where the timber was taken from the Mayflower Barn. The Barn was a tourist attraction to visitors, particularly Americans, but is now privately owned and closed to the public.

Society

Jordans has a "pop-up pub" named The Jolly Quaker, open on the first Friday of each month. Its monthly Cinema Club "Jordans Picture House" opens on the second Friday and sometimes on the second Sunday of the month from October to May. Both operate from the village hall in Green West Road behind the village store.

Several annual events take place: a summer fair, usually in June; a sports day; an annual cricket match, and a village supper to commemorate the founding of the village on the nearest Saturday to its anniversary each February. The Jordans Tennis Club in the village holds about seven roll-ups each year. In June 2019, the village marked its centenary with an event on the village green.

Jordans Village Community Store opened in 1922. It sells the usual staples and some own-brand preserves, and includes a sub-post office. It is subsidized by a voluntary Shop Amenity Charge of £5 or £10 per month paid by about half the households in the village.

Allotments in Jordans

Jordans has eight allotments, located next to the tennis court. The allotments used to be located in Crutches Lane, and were moved to allow a development of four homes for the elderly, built in 2008.

Thriller writer Frederick Forsyth lived in the village until his death in 2025.